We thought it was a modest goal. Run the Marine Corps Marathon in under 4 hours. Heck, we’d been lucky enough get into the race in the first place (it’s a lottery entry). And we’d run our last marathon, Baltimore, in 4 hours 10 minutes. The Marine Corps route is much less hilly than Baltimore. Surely we could shave off a measly 10 minutes. Our pace was on track from our last long training run, 22 miles. We got this.

Sigh. We walked the last 6 miles of the course and made it past the finish line in a little under 5 hours. 😦

Now the question is, resignation or revenge?

Training for a marathon takes a lot of time. Starting your runs at 6 AM. Running in the dark. Running for 3+ hours straight on the long runs. Is it worth 10 minutes? Maybe we should stick to 1/2 marathons.

Still. Just one more race? Just one under 4 hours. Then we could stop. Then we’d be satisfied.

2 Responses to Marine Corps Flop

I feel your pain. We have similar stories. I ran Baltimore in 2015 in 4:45. Trained hard and thought I could run MCM in 4:30 this year. Had a decent pace until the last 6 miles when the heat got to me. Not sure I hit the wall, but finished in 5:02. At that point I swore off marathons. Don’t know what I’ll do in the future. “Stay positive” is my only thought now.